Saturday, 12 January 2019

FLEETS #26: The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force today

Written by D-Mitch

The Izumo-class "helicopter destroyers" of the JMSDF. Both will be converted to aircraft carriers and will carry F-35B fighters

Following Japan's defeat in World War II, the Imperial Japanese Navy was dissolved by the Potsdam Declaration acceptance. Japan's 1947 Constitution was drawn up after the conclusion of the war, Article 9
specifying that "The Japanese people forever renounce war as a
sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means
of settling international disputes." The prevalent view in Japan is that
this article allows for military forces to be kept for the purposes of
self-defense. In 1954, the JMSDF was formally created as the naval branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), following the passage of the 1954 Self-Defense Forces Law. The first ships in the JMSDF were former U.S. Navy
destroyers, transferred to Japanese control in 1954. In 1956, the JMSDF
received its first domestically produced destroyer since World War II, Harukaze. You can read more about The evolution of Japanese destroyers after WWII. This FLEETS
post is devoted exclusively to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
today, one of the most powerful navies on the planet. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (海上自衛隊 Kaijō Jieitai), JMSDF, also referred to as the Japanese Navy, is tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF has a fleet of 154 ships and 346 aircraft and consists of approximately 45,800 personnel. The first graph (G #1) includes all the carriers, submarines, destroyers, frigates, missile boats and naval aviation (ASW/SAR/MPA/ELINT) that will be in active service by March 2019. The.. "offensive" force if I may say. Note that in December 2018, the Japanese Cabinet gave approval to convert both 248-meter Izumo-class helicopter destroyers into aircraft carriers capable of operating the F-35B STOVL fighter! A second graph (#2) will follow soon in this post, whith all the replenishment ships (5 ships), mine countermeasure vessels (25 vessels), landing craft (9 craft), training ships (8 ships) and other auxiliaries.

5 comments:

Thank you so very much for these infographics dear. They are very useful...... But i have a tiny query bugging me, it's what if some of these ships get decomissioned and replaced, will you update them here too? Sorry for any mistakes in my speech.... english is not my first language...... Keep up the amazing work......